


paint stains and lego bricks

by ddaydream



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: M/M, child!jim pickens, kindergarten teacher!dan, single dad!kevin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 11:39:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22670176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ddaydream/pseuds/ddaydream
Summary: Kevin falls for his son's kindergarten teacher.
Relationships: Daniel Condren/Kevin O'Reilly
Comments: 78
Kudos: 155





	1. one

**Author's Note:**

> reupload.
> 
> please do not send this to kevin, daniel, or anyone associated with them.

Kevin loves Sunday mornings.

It’s his only day off in the entire week, so he gets to sleep in as late as Jim will let him. He usually likes to get up early anyway to make Jim pancakes, which he’s allowed to watch in front of the TV as a special treat. Then it’s off to soccer practice. Kevin’s never known comedy like a soccer practice full of five-year-olds, because none of them really understand what they’re doing and they fall over at a ridiculously high rate. The other parents glare at him for laughing when Jim runs into the goalpost or faceplants into the dirt, but Jim just laughs along with him. Then, after running some errands, they come home and Kevin teaches Jim how to play some of his favorite video games.

There’s only one problem with this Sunday morning, Kevin realizes as he checks his phone, and it’s that it’s not Sunday morning. It’s actually Monday morning, and Jim starts kindergarten in five minutes. 

“Oh, feck’s sake,” he mumbles, throwing himself out of bed and rifling through the pile of laundry on the floor to find something passably clean to wear. He slips on a hoodie and jeans before running down the hallway to bang on Jim’s door. “Jim, time to get up! We’re running late!”

“Where are we going?” a small voice says.

“To school, honey, remember?” Kevin says. “You need to get dressed as quick as you can, okay? We’ll have to eat on the way.”

“Mmkay.”

Kevin sprints to the kitchen and tosses three pieces of toast into the toaster. Thankfully he had had the good sense to prepare Jim’s lunch box the night before, otherwise there would be no way he would have it together in time. 

“Daddy, ‘m stuck.”

Jim wanders into the kitchen with his school uniform sweater still stuck at the top of his head. Kevin reaches over to pull it down and Jim shrieks.

“OW, Daddy!”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry, here’s your breakfast,” Kevin says. He hands a piece of buttered toast to Jim and runs to grab his shoes from the hallway. “We’re gonna put shoes on in the car.” 

He puts the lunch box into Jim’s hands, takes his arm and practically drags him out the door. Jim seems completely unaware of what the rush is all about. He eats two bites of his toast before dropping it on the gravel driveway. 

“Oops.”

“Jesus f- Dang it,” Kevin corrects himself. He decides not to go back and start breakfast all over. They have snack time in kindergarten, right? Jim will live. He opens the car door, sets Jim down in his booster seat in the back, and gets into the driver’s seat.

“Daddy, it won’t click!” Jim whines after Kevin starts the engine. Kevin reaches back to try and do it for him while trying to reverse out of the driveway at the same time. Eventually, it clicks, but now Jim’s complaining that he forgot his propeller hat at home and that he wants to go back. Kevin grits his teeth. Jim’s been obsessed with the hat ever since he got it at a birthday party and Kevin’s made no headway into getting him to forget about it. 

“We don’t wear hats to school, Jim,” Kevin reminds him gently. Jim bursts into tears.

“I - want - my - hat!” he wails. He kicks the back of Kevin’s seat over and over. “My hat, my hat, my hat, my hat, my hat!”

Kevin elects to ignore him, even though normally he’d threaten Jim with a time-out. At this point, he just wants to waste as little time as possible. It’s already 9:06, and they still have ten more minutes to go. 

Jim calms down when he realizes Kevin won’t give him what he wants, although he does keep sniffling for the rest of the drive. Kevin starts to feel a little sad. He’d done a mini photoshoot of Jim in his school uniform the day they’d gotten it and bought him a notebook and pencils, but he hadn’t actually processed that he would actually be going to his first real day of school. Where had all the time gone?

He parks close to the front gate of the school and pulls Jim out of the car. Jim goes suspiciously silent as they walk into the reception. The lady at the desk calls up to Jim’s teacher to come and pick him up. Kevin gives his son’s hand a gentle squeeze.

“Okay, buddy, you ready for your first day?” he asks. Jim shakes his head. “Hey, why not? You’re gonna have a great time, okay? You’ll make lots of friends, do some drawings, learn numbers... All that fun stuff.”

Jim’s lower lip trembles. “Please don’t go, Daddy.”

Kevin feels like someone’s stuck a knife into his heart. “I - I’m sorry, Jim, but I have to go to work,” he says. “I’ll be back at three to pick you up.”

Jim says nothing, but he hugs Kevin’s legs tightly. 

“Hey, it’s gonna be alright,” Kevin says, trying desperately to keep his voice from wavering. He kneels down so that he’s nearly eye to eye with Jim and gives him a hug. “You’re so brave, Jim. I know you’re gonna be okay.”

“Excuse me.”

Kevin stands up, keeping a hand on Jim’s shoulder. His mouth drops open a tiny bit when he spots the man who’s appeared in the doorway, because  _ oh God, he’s cute. _ He’s around Kevin’s age, with messy brown hair and blue eyes. A paint-splattered apron is tied loosely around his lanky body. He extends his hand with a bright smile on his face that makes Kevin’s heart skip a beat.

“Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Daniel Condren, Jim’s teacher,” he says. “You’re his father, I take it?”

Kevin shakes his hand. “Yup, hello, hey, I’m Kevin. Nice to meet you too,” he babbles.

“And who’s this?”

Kevin snaps back to reality and pats the top of Jim’s head. “Oh, this is Jim. Why don’t you say hi to Mr. Condren, honey?”

“Hi,” Jim mumbles, burying his face in the side of Kevin’s leg to avoid making eye contact. 

“Sorry, he’s not usually this shy. Quite the opposite, in fact,” Kevin says. 

Daniel smiles. “Not a problem. Hey, Jim, we’re gonna go up to your new classroom, okay? It’s playtime right now and there are lots of people who want to meet you and make friends,” he says. Jim looks up at him with wide eyes.

“Playtime?”

“Yup. Say goodbye to your dad now and we can head on up,” Daniel says. 

Jim finally separates himself from the leg of Kevin’s pants. Kevin tries to force himself to smile, but he’s feeling oddly fragile all of a sudden. Jim just looks so tiny next to Daniel. One of his tall socks is already falling down to his ankle, and Kevin has to resist the urge to help him fix it. 

“Bye, Daddy,” Jim says, waving with both hands at Kevin. “See ya later!”

“Bye,” Kevin whispers. 

He watches as Daniel and Jim disappear around the corner and out of sight. For some reason, he can’t bring himself to move his feet. The receptionist sighs and gives him a sad smile.

“It’s always harder for the parents than the kids,” she says. “Don’t worry. It gets so much easier.”

“I know,” Kevin says, but his voice cracks. 

“Go to work, Mr. O’Reilly,” she says. “You’ll be back before you know it.”

Kevin manages to keep it together on the way to work, though he has to fight back tears for the entire drive. It definitely helps that the image of Mr. Condren - Daniel - keeps floating back into his head.

Or at least it helps until he remembers he’s going to have to see him again that afternoon.

-

Kevin pulls up to the school gates at exactly three. He’d left work much earlier than he really should have and had been driving in circles for a while, blasting music that he couldn’t play when Jim’s impressionable ears were listening.

Kids are spilling out onto the playground from the back doors of the school, each class in a straight line with a teacher at the head of it. Kevin spots a hoard of parents waiting near where the kindergarteners are supposed to be and heads over to join them. He’s slightly put off by how few of them are fathers.

One of the mothers smiles at him as he comes to stand beside her. “Is your child in Mr. Condren’s class?” she asks. Kevin nods. 

“Yup, my son Jim.”

“Ah, my daughter Amelia is in his class as well. I think they’re in good hands. I met him at the introductory parents night a few weeks back and he was a total sweetheart.”

Kevin grimaced. He’d meant to go to that parent’s night, but then one of his stores had reported a theft and he’d had to go spend two hours at the police station. 

“It’s nice that you’ve come to pick him up,” she says. “I’d never be able to get my husband on babysitting duty for this long!”

“Ha, well, it’s just me and Jim, so y’know,” Kevin says. He’s liking this woman less and less with every word she speaks. He considered anyone who refers to forcing their husband to parent as ‘babysitting duty’ a waste of his time. 

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” she says. She looks Kevin up and down, turns slightly red, and flutters her eyes at him. “Are you... divorced?”

Kevin rolls his eyes. “No. His mother is dead.”

That seems to shut her up. She mumbles a half-baked apology and quickly turns to chat with the woman next to her. Kevin knows he could probably be more tactful about dropping that bombshell, but it’s also very useful for making people feel uncomfortable when they deserve it.

Jim’s class walks up a few seconds later. The kids shriek and immediately break formation to go hug their parents. Kevin makes eye contact with Daniel’s panicked teacher’s assistant, who’s desperately trying to sign everyone out with her clipboard and maintain the line at the same time.

“Hey, guys, wait, hang on, line order, please!” she yells over the chatter. “Can the line leader - where’s Caroline? Hi, are you Caroline’s mum?”

Daniel brings up the rear of what was once the line. He takes the time to re-introduce himself to each parent as they collect their child even as he tries to wrangle all the kids back into line order. Kevin hangs around the back of the crowd to wait out the chaos, but Jim spots him anyway.

“Daddy!” he said, bursting out of the line and hugging Kevin tightly. “I missed you!”

“Jim!” Kevin says. He scoops Jim up and spins him around twice, ignoring the sharp pain that shoots through his shoulder. “I missed you too, honey. How was your day?”

Daniel waves at Kevin. “Hey, sorry, we need you to sign Jim out before you can go!” he calls. Kevin puts Jim down and goes up to Daniel.

“Sorry, sorry,” he says. He takes the pen from Dan’s hands and writes down his name beside Jim’s. “Was everything okay with Jim today?”

“Yup, he had a great time,” Daniel says. He’s taken off his apron, but he still has streaks of paint in his hair and on his face. “Didn’t you, Jim?”

“Yeah! Daddy, Mr. Condren is  _ so  _ cool,” Jim announces. “He played Legos with me and helped me build a biiiiiiig house!”’

“Is that so?”

Daniel looks a bit flustered. “I promise it’s not playtime all day, Mr. O’Reilly. We also started some number practice.”

“Ah, please, call me Kevin,” he says. “And don’t worry - I trust you.”

The two share a shy smile. Kevin feels unreasonably nervous. 

“Daddy, I wanna go home,” Jim whines, tugging on Kevin’s t-shirt. 

“Yes, of course, right, okay, let’s go on home, then,” Kevin says. “Um, I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess. G’bye.”

“Goodbye, Kevin,” Daniel says. “See you in the morning.”

Kevin tunes out Jim for the entire drive home. It’s not like he means to, but he keeps mentally replaying his awkward goodbye over and over and wanting to punch himself in the face. He tries to comfort himself with the thought that Daniel is probably used to it. After all, he must get hit on all the time by parents. 

Wait, that’s normal, right? To get hit on by parents?

Oh, God, he’s crushing on his son’s teacher. Daniel must think he’s a freak. 


	2. two

The next morning, Kevin gets Jim up at a more appropriate hour and sits down with him for a less hectic breakfast. He lets him have a bowl of sugary cereal even though he knows he really shouldn’t. It would’ve been Jim’s first-day-of-school treat if the morning hadn’t been a complete disaster, anyways. 

“Daddy, can I make you a draw-ring today?” Jim asks. He’s still in his pajamas, as Kevin wasn’t particularly interested in washing milk stains out of his sweater five minutes before they had to leave the house.

“Of course you can, honey. Why don’t you draw us doing something cool together?” Kevin suggests. He’s not eating anything, but he’s clutching his mug of strong coffee like a lifeline. Getting up early never agreed with him. “I’ll put it over my desk.”

“Mmkay. Oh- oops.”

Jim knocks his bowl onto the floor, causing it to shatter and spread milk across the kitchen tiles. Kevin leaps up and snatches the paper towels off the side. Parenting handbooks never prepared him for just how damn often kids spill things. 

They have a sing-along to Kevin’s old pop music playlist on the drive over. Jim shrieks nonsense over the words he doesn’t know, leaving both of them in fits of giggles as they pull up to the school gates. 

He almost forgets about Daniel until he’s halfway up the stairs to Jim’s classroom. He wants to stop and collect his thoughts for a second, but he can’t with the way that Jim’s practically dragging him along. He can’t remember the last time he’s seen his son so excited.

Daniel’s standing outside the classroom, chatting with a small group of parents. He’s wearing the same paint-stained apron over a checked shirt. As Kevin approaches, the group splits off and walks away. Kevin grimaces. He was hoping he’d be able to avoid the gay panic that would inevitably come from talking to Daniel, but apparently luck would not be on his side.

“Good morning, Mr. - Kevin. Good morning, Jim,” Daniel says. 

“Morning!” Jim chirps. He lets go of Kevin’s hand and charges into the classroom without a backwards glance. Kevin sighs.

“Well, goodbye, I guess,” he says sarcastically. Daniel chuckles.

“Better than a temper tantrum, I think.”

“Yeah, guess so. By the way, about the early bird drop off, when does it start and where should I drop him? I have to be available to help open my stores most days, so I can’t be here at this time every morning.”

Daniel’s face falls almost imperceptibly when Kevin speaks, but he quickly returns to his normal smile. “Ah, yes. It opens at 7:30, and it’s in the gym. The receptionist can point you to where it is.”

“Thanks. It’s a shame I can’t see him off to class,” Kevin says.

“Mm, a real shame.” Daniel’s eyes widen as he realizes what he just said. “I mean - uh, well, he’ll have a good time playing with the other kids. Anyway! I’m going to go in now. Bye, Kevin!” he says so quickly Kevin can barely understand his words. 

_ Did that mean what I thought it meant?  _

Kevin forces himself to push the thought out of his head as he walks back down the stairs. He really, really doesn’t want to get his hopes up.

-

One day, as Kevin is helping one of his employees look for an order they’ve managed to lose in the back somewhere, he gets a phone call from a number he doesn’t recognize. He answers it and holds his phone to his ear with his shoulder.

“Hello, is this Mr. O’Reilly?”

“Speaking.”

“This is Mr. Condren, Jim’s teacher.”

“Oh my God, is Jim okay?” Kevin says with a gasp, nearly dropping all of the boxes he was holding. “What happened?”

“Oh, no, don’t worry!” Daniel says. “Sorry, sorry. I’m calling you to let you know that Jim got into a fight today. We’re going to need you to come into school this afternoon so we can have a talk.”

“Jim got into a fight?” Kevin says in disbelief. “Jeez, the other fecker must’ve been asking f- I mean, yes, of course, I’ll come in at the regular pick up time.”

Kevin swears he hears Daniel suppressing a giggle at that. “Alright, see you then,” he says before hanging up.

He goes straight to Jim’s classroom as soon as he arrives at school. He can’t quite believe that they’re escalating things this far for a fight between two five-year-olds. When he was a kid, his teacher probably wouldn’t have bothered to tell his parents, let alone bring them in for a conversation. 

Jim, Daniel, and another boy are waiting on the chairs outside of the room. Both the kids are hanging their heads in shame, but Daniel just looks bored. When Kevin comes closer, he realizes that the other boy is pressing an ice pack to his eye. 

“Hey, Jim,” Kevin calls down the hallway. Jim puts his head up, a fearful expression on his face. Daniel also perks up. 

“Ah, Kev- Mr. O’Reilly,” Daniel says, standing up to shake his hand. “Good to see you. I apologize for calling you in the middle of a workday, but it’s protocol, I’m afraid.”

“No problem. Now, what’s going on with these two?” Kevin says, gesturing at Jim and the other boy. 

Before Daniel can answer, the sound of high heels clicking draws his attention to a woman at the end of the hallway. She’s clutching a messy stack of papers and a paper coffee cup, and she looks  _ furious _ . She marches straight up to Daniel, almost knocking Kevin over in the process.

“So let me get this straight,” she says. “My kid gets beat up at recess and it’s somehow his fault? I’ve never heard such bull in my life. I shouldn’t have to be here right now.”

“Now, hold on,” Daniel says. “Let’s step inside the classroom for a second and hear both boys out.”

The woman groans loudly. “Fine. Come on, Arthur.”

They file into the classroom. It’s odd seeing it empty and somewhat clean; when Kevin comes in for drop-off, there are usually at least half a dozen kids throwing paint and toys everywhere. Daniel takes a seat at his desk in the corner of the room and gestures for the others to sit at the table nearby. Kevin nearly laughs out loud as he watches the woman perch on one of the toddler-sized chairs.

“Right. Arthur, why don’t you tell us what happened?” Daniel says. Arthur looks from him to his mother to Jim and bursts into tears. 

“We were playing at recess and he - he just hit me! It really, really hurt!” he wails. His mother strokes his hair soothingly.

“It’s alright, honey, it’s okay,” she whispers. Kevin has to fight the urge to roll his eyes. He can spot fake tears from a mile away thanks to Jim’s many attempts at wearing him down, and there was no way this kid was for real. Daniel looks equally unimpressed.

“Jim, is this true?” he says.

Jim shakes his head. He’s not making eye contact with him or Kevin. Kevin starts to wonder if it actually was an unprovoked attack. He can’t imagine why Jim would be so embarrassed if he hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Can you tell us what you think happened?”

Jim’s lower lip wobbles. “Um, he - he came up to me an’ said did I think it was weird that I only had a daddy and not a mum. An’ I said no. Then he said that he thought it was weird an’ he laughed at me. So I said no it’s not, an’ then he wouldn’t stop laughing, so I hit him.”

The other woman looks aghast. She looks at Arthur. “Arthur, honey, you wouldn’t say that, would you?” she says. Arthur responds by crying even harder. 

Kevin feels a little bit ill. He puts an arm around Jim and cuddles him close. He’d always tried to do his best to make sure Jim felt like he had a normal home life, and this wasn’t the first time that Jim had had to confront that he didn’t. He didn’t exactly want to endorse Jim going around punching people, but he couldn’t bring himself to feel angry about it.

“I’m not going to recommend any in-school discipline. The boys are very young, and I think that they’ve both learned their lesson. But I would encourage both of you to have talks with them at home about using their words,” Daniel says. He nods to both parents. “That’s all for now.”

Outside the classroom, Arthur’s mom stops Kevin before he can walk away.

“Mr. O’Reilly, is it? I’m so incredibly sorry,” she says. Her expression has softened considerably since she had arrived. “I’ve tried to teach him to be accepting of non-traditional families, but he idolizes his father, and...”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kevin says, and honestly, he means it. He can hardly blame a kid for eating up everything they’re told without question. The woman smiles and bids him goodbye.

He resolves to let Jim stay up a little later tonight. It’s not supposed to be a reward, but he feels as if he needs to make something up to him. 

-

The next day, Kevin drops Jim off at the early-bird as usual. However, just as he comes back through the reception area, Daniel taps him on the shoulder.

“Kevin, hi,” he says. He’s panting like he’s run a mile to catch up to him. “I was hoping I’d catch you. I just wanted to say something about everything that happened yesterday with Jim.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” Kevin says with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I’ve heard it all before, really.”

“No, I just - You’re doing a great job, okay? Jim’s a good kid,” Daniel says. “He loves you so much, like, he talks about you like you’re his hero. So many fathers just don’t get involved with their kids at all. I see it all the time.”

“Oh.” A sheepish grin spreads across Kevin’s face. “Wow, um, oh my goodness. I don’t know what I’m even doing half the time, to be honest. But thank you. It means a lot to me.”

Daniel smiles back, placing his hand on the back of his neck. “Just felt like you deserved to know.”

They gaze at each other for a few seconds. Kevin feels his face turning red, but he can’t bring himself to look away. In the end, Daniel’s the one who breaks first.

“Well, um, see you at pick-up,” he says. “Bye.”

“Bye,” Kevin says softly as Daniel scurries back into the hallway.

When he gets to the car, he rests his forehead on the steering wheel and groans loudly. There’s no denying it at this point. Daniel makes him feel like a nervous wreck, and he loves every moment of it.


	3. three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haven't updated this since ficpocalypse so friendly reminder to never show this to kevin or daniel. looking at you twitch chat
> 
> also in case you're picturing jim in this fic as an old man, i tend to imagine him as a tiny carbon copy of kevin minus the facial hair lol

Kevin spends an embarrassingly long time working up the courage to make a move. He’s fairly sure Daniel’s into him, or at the very least would be nice enough to shut him down gently, but that doesn’t make it easier to actually ask him out. Every time he finds the time to drop Jim off later in the morning, he spends the entire drive psyching himself up, only to lose all his courage as soon as he’s face to face with Daniel.

A few weeks into the school year, Daniel pulls Kevin aside at pickup time.

“Kevin, I thought I ought to let you know that Jim has a 'girlfriend’,” he says, making air quotes with his fingers. “It’s obviously just them playing pretend, but you may want to discuss it with him.”

“A what? They’re five years old!” Kevin says.

Daniel smiles. “Kids tend to emulate the behaviors of adults without really understanding what they’re doing. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

Kevin nods slowly. He was really not expecting to have to have this conversation with Jim before he was a teenager, but life had been full of surprises for him since Jim had started going to school. He was also praying he’d be able to ask Jim about it without dissolving into laughter. 

He waits until they’re sat down for dinner together to talk to him about it. 

“So, Jim,” he begins. “Mr. Condren was telling me that you’ve made a new friend at school.”

“I’ve made lotsa friends,” Jim says. He’s picking at his overcooked chicken with a disgusted look on his face. “Like Charlie, Oliver, James, Martin -”

Kevin cuts him off before he can list every single person in his class. “Maybe a  _ girl _ friend?” he suggests. He expects Jim to go shy and deny everything, but he doesn’t falter.

“Yup, her name is Caroline and we’re gonna get married at recess tomorrow,” he explains matter-of-factly. Kevin has to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing out loud.

“I see. Is she nice?” 

“Yup. She gave me a granola bar.”

Kevin can’t help but envy the simplicity of Jim’s standards. “Well, that’s good to hear. I hope the wedding goes well.”

“Thanks.”

As soon as Jim is sat down in front of the TV, Kevin heads to his room and finally lets himself collapse into giggles. The prospect of Jim’s ‘wedding’ is just too ridiculous and adorable all at once. 

It also, however, reminds Kevin that he really needs to do something about the Daniel situation; it’s probably not a good sign that his five-year-old is having better luck in the romance department than he is. He’s been putting it off for far too long.

-

The next morning, Kevin gets Jim into the car a little earlier than usual. He takes a slightly different route to the school so that he can stop at his favorite café and buy a coffee for himself, a small pastry for Jim, and another one for Daniel. His plan is to lie and say that they gave him an extra, then ask him if he wants to go out for lunch on the weekend. It’s not the most sophisticated strategy, but he thinks it’ll get the job done.

His palms are sweating so much on the drive over that he leaves marks on the steering wheel. Thankfully, Jim doesn’t seem to notice. He’s singing the same song about a caterpillar over and over again, restarting every time he forgets a word or manages to reach the end. He doesn’t stop singing as they get out of the car and head up to Daniel’s classroom.

Kevin’s half-tempted to turn around and let Jim go upstairs on his own, but he takes a few deep breaths and forces himself to climb the stairs. He knows it’s not exactly a now-or-never situation - he’ll see Daniel every morning for the next few months, of course - but he does feel like if he doesn’t get it over with today then he probably never will.

Daniel is standing outside his classroom as usual, chatting to a girl who’s standing in the doorway. When he spots Kevin and Jim, he waves at them. Jim charges down the hallway and hugs the girl.

“Hiya, Caroline,” he says cheerfully. “Do you have another granola bar?”

“Jim!” Kevin scolds. “That's not how we talk to our friends." 

Jim ignores him and disappears into the classroom without looking back. Kevin sighs, then turns his attention back to Daniel.

“Good morning,” Daniel says, a bemused expression on his face.

“Good morning,” Kevin says. He’s so focused on forcing himself to get the words out that he doesn’t remember the part about the pastry, and he’s clutching the bag it’s in like a lifeline. “Um, so, okay, this might be totally out of left field...”

“Yeah?”

“Do you, like, maybe want to get lunch with me this Saturday?” Kevin says, his voice unnaturally high. “Sorry if that’s, like, completely inappropriate. I just... well, uh, wanted to ask.”

To Kevin’s surprise, Daniel actually blushes and covers his mouth with one hand. “Oh, wow. Yes please.”

Kevin starts to internally panic. He hadn’t actually planned out what would happen if Daniel said yes, as he’d been too busy imagining all the nightmare scenarios where he got rejected. “Nice, okay, cool,” he says as nonchalantly as he can. “Uh, I know a great little place on Smith Street - it’s across from the Starbucks, you know the one?”

“I do,” Daniel says. “Shall I meet you there, then?”

“Yeah, uh, can we do 12:30? Jim has a playdate nearby, so...”

“Sounds perfect.”

“Cool. See you then. I mean, uh, well, I’ll see you later, at pickup. And tomorrow too, when I drop Jim off, but - okay, you know what I mean. I’ll see you on Saturday,” Kevin babbles. 

Daniel grins. “See you on Saturday, Kevin. Have a nice morning.”

Kevin practically skips down the stairs and through the parking lot. When he’s halfway to his car, he comes to his senses and realizes that he’s still holding the now-crumpled bag with the croissant in it. He looks at it in disbelief of his own stupidity, then rolls his eyes.

_ Past Kevin, you’re an idiot,  _ he thinks.  _ But at least you’re an idiot with a date.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> his chapter is super short, sorry! i'm kind of losing motivation to work on this one but i really want to finish it, so i might post multiple shorter chapters instead of two longer ones like i originally planned. hope that's good <3


	4. four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's been ten thousand years..... or two months, whatever
> 
> yknow what, after weeks of writing this, i've found a major plot hole: i don't think they call it kindergarten in ireland. so continue to suspend ur disbelief for this fic please.
> 
> as usual, don't show this to daniel, kevin, or anyone associated with them.

After Jim goes to bed, Kevin usually boots up his PC and tries to get an hour or two of gaming in before the need for sleep inevitably overtakes him. He plays with Jim sometimes, letting him direct the construction of a Minecraft house or make a Sim. When he plays on his own, he always keeps one earbud out - a habit he picked up when Jim was a baby and he needed to listen for his cries. 

“Daddy?”

Kevin jerks his mouse out of surprise, causing his character to shoot the wall instead of the zombie he was aiming for. He pauses the game and looks over to see Jim standing beside his desk.

“Ah, hey, Jim,” he says, pulling his other earbud out. “Why’re you still awake, buddy?”

Jim pauses, then lifts a photo album up and places it onto the edge of the desk. It’s a huge, fat book that’s older than Kevin is, and Jim nearly falls over backwards as he’s moving it. Kevin puts a hand on it to stop it from slipping back off.

“Do we wanna look at pictures?”

Jim nods, his eyes trained on the floor. Kevin scoops him up and places him on his lap. 

The photo album spans twenty-seven years at this point, and it’s still not full. Kevin’s mother had updated it until Kevin was about fifteen, at which point he began to put pictures in himself. Even after the transition to cell phone pictures, he found himself printing out physical copies or sneaking Polaroids of his friends whenever he could.

He knows that Jim doesn’t get this book out to look at those pictures, though. He’ll flip through them quickly, maybe stopping to giggle at ones where Kevin is making a funny face, but he’s always determined to get to about three-quarters of the way through. That’s where the pictures of Anna are.

Kevin opens the book for Jim. As predicted, he goes straight to the page where the first picture of Anna is. It’s a group picture Kevin took on the night they met, and she’s surrounded by a bunch of their mutual friends. Usually, Jim asks a thousand questions - “Who’s this? Where are you? What’s that?” - but this evening he’s quieter.

Jim turns the page himself and stares intently at the next picture. It’s one of Kevin and Anna together, cuddled up on the floor of a friend’s apartment. Kevin is laughing and pointing at someone out of the shot, and Anna is smiling up at him like he’s her entire world. Kevin’s heart squeezes in his chest. It’s been five years, but looking at these hurts every single time.

He’s always been open with Jim about his mother, ever since he was old enough to speak. Some parents in the support group he attended had decided to tell their children the details when they were older, but Kevin figured there was no point in denying reality and bringing Jim even more grief further down the line. 

Jim runs his fingers over the next picture. Anna is sitting on some grass, smiling at the camera. She’s wearing a red sundress and matching bandanna.

“Was she nice?” Jim says softly.

“Yup. She was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met,” Kevin says. “And she was really funny, too.”

That’s not enough to describe it, but if he goes on for too long he’ll just upset himself, so he leaves it at that. Jim seems satisfied by his answer, anyways.

He ruffles Jim’s hair as he turns the page. It’s incredible how fast the time has gone. It seems like it was just a few weeks ago that he was buying baby clothes, and now Jim is talking and walking and even making jokes by himself. He remembers bringing Jim home for the first time, laying him down in his crib with shaking hands, and collapsing onto the couch by himself with tears in his eyes. He wishes he could take this moment and show it to that 22-year-old Kevin, just so he would know that it would all be okay. 

The last picture in the photo album is of him lying beside a heavily pregnant Anna on the couch in their apartment, surrounded by candy wrappers. Kevin had taken the picture in between fits of laughter, so it’s a little blurry. Anna is reaching out like she’s trying to swat him away, but she’s laughing too. 

“Was I in her tummy?” Jim asks. Kevin nods. 

“This was Halloween, just before you were born,” Kevin says. He’d had this picture printed off his phone because it was the last one he’d ever taken of her; she’d gone into labor three days later. When he looks at it, he almost feels cheated. This picture was supposed to be one of the first in a long line of family photos. Instead, it was the last.

He used to wonder when Jim would be old enough to really understand the loss. It was one thing to know it happened, but it was another to really get it. Three-year-old Jim had probably been too small to process it. Now, with the way that Jim is tracing the outlines of the pictures, Kevin starts to think that he might finally be feeling it.

“You alright, Jim?”

“Mmhm,” Jim says. He wriggles off of Kevin’s lap. “I’m sleepy now.”

“Okay. You want me to tuck you in?”

“No, I’m okay. Thank you, Daddy.”

“Alright. Goodnight. Love you.”

“G’night. Love you.”

-

On Friday afternoon, Kevin arrives to pickup ten minutes later than usual. Only a few clusters of kids and teachers are standing on the playground. He quickly spots Jim and Daniel among them and hurries over. 

“Sorry I’m so late!” he calls.

“No worries,” Daniel says. “Jim was telling me about his Minecraft house, weren’t you, Jim?”

Jim nods sheepishly. “Um, well, Daddy built it. But he lets me choose where stuff goes.”

“You’re into video games, then?” Daniel says to Kevin, clearly trying to mask the eagerness in his voice. 

“Yup. Don’t get as much time to play as I used to, but y’know, when I get the time. I run a bunch of second-hand games and electronics stores, actually,” Kevin says. “Dunno if you know CeX?”

Daniel’s face lights up. “Oh, my God, no way! I -”

“Daddy, I’m  _ hungry _ !” Jim interrupts. Kevin sighs and smiles at Daniel.

“I better get this one a snack. Hold that thought for tomorrow.”

“Oh - right, of course. See you tomorrow!” Daniel says. He bends his knees a little to wave at Jim, checks something on his clipboard, and walks back towards the school building. 

-

Ireland has had an unseasonably warm fall this year, but Saturday is cold and crisp. Kevin spends ten minutes trying to stuff Jim into his winter coat from the year before, but it becomes clear that he’s managed to outgrow it already, so he gives up and makes him wear two sweaters instead. 

Kevin dithers over his own outfit for much longer than usual. It’s been a while since he’s had a first date; most people his age weren’t interested in dating someone who already had a kid, which had left Kevin single for years and thus with a dire lack of experience planning outfits for this sort of occasion. He eventually settles on a denim jacket, white t-shirt, and black jeans. 

They set out fifteen minutes later than Kevin would’ve hoped. Jim explains to him on the walk over that he’s learned a new song at school, which he proceeds to scream-sing for three blocks until Kevin feels like he’s going to go insane.

“Hey, buddy, do you wanna play the quiet game?” he suggests. Jim tilts his head.

“What’s the quiet game?”

“Whoever is quiet for the longest wins.”

Jim mimes zipping his lips and is blissfully silent for the remainder of the walk. 

Jim’s classmate is playing on the lawn with a couple other kids when they arrive at his house, and two mothers are chatting on the porch. Jim drops Kevin’s hand and sprints over to join the game as soon as he sees them.

Kevin still hasn’t really found his footing with the other parents at the school. Most of the ones he meets at playdates and pickups are mothers who view him with either pity or confusion. It doesn’t help that most of them have at least seven to ten years on him. He can’t help but feel like they view him as one of the children sometimes. Thankfully, it seems like they’re starting to get used to him. 

“Hi, Kevin, good to see you!” one of the mothers, Laura, calls to him as he comes up to the porch. 

“Hey! Thanks so much for looking after Jim today,” he says. 

“No worries. He and Charlie get along so well. It’s a pleasure to have him around,” Laura says. “Jim doesn’t have any allergies or anything, right? I’m going to make lunch in a few.”

“Nope, he’s all good.”

“Lovely. I’ll see you at three thirty, then!”

Kevin has to speed walk to make it to the café in time. His heart flutters when he sees Daniel standing outside. He’s wearing a grey sweater with a collared shirt underneath, but there’s still a streak of green paint on his jeans.

Daniel turns bright red as Kevin approaches him, and Kevin’s sure he does the same. They greet each other with soft ‘hellos’, then immediately find themselves at a loss for words. It’s the first time they’ve actually been alone together, without Jim or the teacher’s assistant or other parents hanging around. Daniel is the first to speak again.

“You look really nice today,” he says. “I love your jacket.”

“Oh, thank you. I, uh, love the jeans,” Kevin says, gesturing at the paint mark. He wants to smack himself in the face as soon as he’s said it. Thankfully, Daniel just laughs.

“God, I know. Would you believe that this is my least destroyed pair?”

“Actually, with the amount of clothing I’ve lost to Jim’s markers, I absolutely would,” Kevin replies. “Shall we sit down?”

They’re seated by the window and handed menus. Kevin points out the sandwich he usually gets, but Daniel chooses a pastry instead, one almost identical to the one Kevin failed to give him earlier in the week.

“So,” Daniel says once they’ve ordered. “CeX?”

Kevin cracks a grin. “You didn’t forget, I see.”

“You have no idea how excited I was when you said that,” Daniel says. “Those cheap games saved my life when I was a broke college student.”

“Glad to hear that! Yeah, I own a few stores. Working retail isn’t exactly my dream job, but it pays the bills and I’m lucky that I’ve managed to work my way up. Plus, cheap phones and games and stuff,” Kevin says. “How long have you been teaching for?”

“Two years. Well, a bit longer if you count classroom assistant work. It was a bit of a nightmare getting hired, actually. A lot of schools don’t take male elementary school teachers.”

“Are you serious?” Kevin says. “Isn’t that blatant discrimination?”

Daniel chuckles. “Well, it’s not like they come right out and say it. But yeah, basically. I love my job, though. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, but I thought I would teach English in high school or something. Then I got recommended to an early childhood education program in college, and all of that changed.”

“That’s so nice. You’re great with the kids. Like, all the moms in the group chat are obsessed with you.”

Daniel grimaces. “There’s a group chat? Oh, Jesus. I don’t even wanna know what they say there.”

“Don’t worry, it’s all good things!” Kevin says quickly. “Well, about you, anyways. They fight amongst themselves.”

They’re interrupted by the server bringing them their lunches. Daniel gasps when he sees the cat-shaped latte art and breaks out his cell phone to take pictures. Kevin watches him with a fond smile. 

It’s been a long time since he’s experienced something like this. He’s not sure what it is, exactly. All he knows is that Daniel makes him feel like it’s his first time falling for someone, nervous and excited and hopeful all at once. Judging by the way Daniel gets flustered every time they make eye contact, he’s not alone.

They come back to video games eventually, sharing memories of their favorite childhood games and funny stories from the early days of in-game voice chat. The reserved version of Daniel that Kevin sees at morning drop-off has practically disappeared; he has Kevin in fits of laughter with almost every anecdote, one-liners seem to roll off his tongue instantly, and his sarcasm is perfectly biting. 

The date goes by so quickly that Kevin nearly jumps out of his skin when he checks his phone and realizes it’s ten past three. 

“Oh, hell. Sorry for the sudden end, but I’ve got to get Jim in twenty minutes,” he says, fumbling for his wallet. 

“Are you walking towards Brook Street?” Daniel asks. “I’m going to the bus stop near there.”

“Walking me home after the first date? And they say chivalry is dead,” Kevin teases. Daniel giggles.

They walk a little bit too close to each other, hands occasionally brushing as they talk. It ends far too soon for Kevin’s liking. Once they’re outside Jim’s friend’s house, Daniel faces Kevin and smiles up at him.

“I had a great time today,” Daniel says. “I’d like to see you again. Like this, I mean. I know I’ll see you at school and stuff.”

“I’d love that,” Kevin says. 

Without warning, Daniel closes the gap between them and gives Kevin a quick hug. 

“Well, goodbye, then,” he says, and then he turns around and heads back down the street. Kevin can’t help but do a little fist pump as he walks up the path to the house. 

-

Kevin drops Jim off at the normal time on Monday. Jim seems a little antsy, but Kevin chalks it up to normal little-kid weirdness.

He’s wrong. As they round the corner to the classroom, Jim spots two of his friends and their parents chatting to Daniel and sprints up to them. 

“Guess WHAT!” he announces. “I saw Daddy and Mr. Condren KISSING!”

Kevin, Daniel, and the other parents all look down at him with wide eyes. Kevin realizes that Jim must’ve seen them hug through the window.

“Uh, Jim, honey, what are you talking about? There, um, we didn’t -” he says in an attempt to correct him. “Ahah, kids, am I right?” 

The hallway falls painfully silent. Daniel looks like he wants to melt into the floor and disappear, and Kevin doesn’t feel much better. He was hoping to chat more with Daniel this morning, but apparently the universe had other plans.

“Welp, bye Jim, see you later!” he says, his voice uncomfortably high-pitched. He escapes to the stairwell before there can be any awkward questions. 


	5. five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Been Ten Thousand Years
> 
> sorry for spamming the tag sfkgjhsdjkfg i just finished a bunch of stuff all at once don't worry you won't hear from me for ages now
> 
> thanks to robyndoesntlikeyou for the beta <3 
> 
> also don't show this to kevin or daniel you know the drill

Kevin arrives the next morning with an extra coffee for Daniel and an apology on his lips. Thankfully, when he gets upstairs, there are no other families gathered around him. He lets Jim go into the classroom before he turns his attention to Daniel.

“Daniel, I’m really s-” Kevin begins, but Daniel cuts him off with a wave.

“Kids say weird things all the time,” he says. “Don’t you worry about it. Honestly, it was funny.”

Kevin still wants to crawl into a hole and die every time he thinks about it, but he forces himself to chuckle. He offers the coffee in his left hand to Daniel, and Daniel’s eyes widen.

“Oh, Jesus, are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s, uh, the other half of my apology, I guess. Take it or I’ll end up drinking both of them,” Kevin says. Daniel giggles and takes it out of Kevin’s hand.

“Thank you.” He looks down at the top of the cup and frowns, then blushes. “Um. Oh, wow.” 

But Kevin is long gone, already halfway down the stairs. If he was going to pull the disgustingly cheesy move of writing his phone number on the lid, he sure as hell wasn’t going to stick around to be even more awkward about it. 

-

**Unknown Number: ** Hi, Kevin. I got your little message :)

**kevin: ** Oh hey, glad you did! Was a bit worried it would smudge or something haha

**daniel: ** It didn’t <3

**daniel: ** This is perfect timing actually - There’s an exhibit in the city by a photographer I really like, and I was thinking of going on Sunday. Would you like to come with me?

**kevin: ** Yeah, that sounds great! I’ll see if I can find a sitter for Jim. 

Kevin sets his phone down on the counter and sighs. He hates museums. 

-

He leaves Jim at his sister’s house that Sunday. She has a daughter a year younger than Jim, and they seem to get along well. 

“So where are you going?” his sister asks as she leads the two of them to the living room.

“I’ve been seeing this guy,” Kevin says. He keeps it vague on purpose; he often worries people will think that’s a little bit weird that he’s dating his son’s teacher. Thankfully, she asks no further questions. 

“That’s great. I worry about you sometimes, all on your own with Jim...”

“I don’t mind that it’s just me and Jim. We get along great, don’t we, buddy?” 

Jim nods furiously. “Yup!”

“Yes, but you know what I mean. I’m happy for you, Kevin.”

Kevin thinks about her words as he drives into the city. It’s been an awfully long time since he’s felt like he’s gotten close to someone new. He’s fallen out of touch with a lot of people over the past five years; it’s been lonely looking after Jim while most people his age can still meet at the pub every weekend. His closest friends have always understood - after Anna died, they were unbelievably supportive - but he doesn’t get to see them anywhere near as much as he used to.

Jim’s older now. He’s at school most days, he can be left at friend’s houses, he’s even happy to play alone in his room sometimes. Kevin doesn’t have to spend every waking moment worrying about him. Daniel’s come into his life at just the right time.

-

Kevin’s late, as usual. He finds Daniel sitting on a bench at the museum entrance almost twenty minutes after when they were supposed to meet, slightly out of breath from the sprint he had broken into.

“So sorry!” he says to Daniel as he stops in front of him. Daniel lifts his head and smiles. 

“Hey! There you are! I was starting to worry you’d gotten lost.” 

He stands up and gives Kevin a quick hug. He’s wearing a pastel yellow sweater and light blue jeans which look noticeably un-stained. Kevin wonders if he’s gotten new ones just for the occasion.

“Nah, parking was just a nightmare,” Kevin explains. 

“Ah, I wouldn’t know. I took the bus.”

Kevin does a double-take. “What, all the way? Don’t you have to change, like, three times?”

“Twice. It’s not that bad,” Daniel says. “Anyway, I got us tickets while I waited. It’s free entry, but going to the particular exhibit I mentioned costs money.”

“Ah, shit,” Kevin says. He pats his pockets, trying to figure out where he put his wallet. “How much was it? Let me pay you back.”

Daniel shakes his head. “No, don’t be ridiculous! You paid for lunch the other week. This is on me.”

As they enter the museum, Daniel’s hand brushes up against Kevin’s again. This time, though, Kevin is bold enough to interlace his fingers with Daniel’s. He’s a little afraid that Daniel will look for the earliest available opportunity to drop his hand, but they head all the way through the main entrance and up the stairs without letting go.

It’s been years since Kevin’s come to this art museum. He went a few times on class trips when he was very young, but ever since then he’s avoided the place like the plague. He tries not to pull a face as they walk past one of the modern art rooms, but it doesn’t escape Daniel’s notice.

“What?” Daniel says, his tone light and teasing. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who thinks that modern art isn’t real art.”

“I mean...” Kevin says. He glances at a painting of a red circle surrounded by purple lines. “I wouldn’t entirely disagree with that statement. I could definitely do that, and I’m no artist.”

“You  _ could  _ do that, but you  _ didn’t  _ do that, did you?” Daniel says. He squeezes Kevin’s hand gently. “And it made you think. So there, it’s gotta be art.”

“Tons of things make me think that aren’t art,” Kevin argues. “Like, um, math.”

“Some people think math is art.”

“Yeah, but those are people with degrees from Harvard who are like, married to their calculators. No real people think that.”

“Well, don’t worry. We can avoid the modern art rooms as much as you want. That’s not really what I’m here for. Surely you agree that photography is art, hm?”

“If it’s good, sure.”

Daniel rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling. The two of them pause outside the door to the exhibit so Daniel can fumble for the tickets, and then they’re inside. The exhibit is quieter than the rest of the museum. Only a few people are in the vast white room, staring pensively at the photos on the wall. 

Kevin lets Daniel lead him from picture to picture. They’re mostly portraits of random people Kevin has never heard of. He’s not sure if he’s supposed to know who they are, but he doesn’t want to ask Daniel in case he looks like an idiot. Though he finds it hard to look at them for more than a few seconds at a time, Daniel stops at almost every one, concentrating on them with his eyebrows furrowed. His serious expression looks so cute that Kevin can’t help but focus on him instead of the art.

“You’re really pretty, you know that?” he says softly. Daniel’s stern look melts away, replaced by one of surprise as he turns his head away from the picture in front of him.

“Oh,” he whispers. 

Kevin cringes internally. “Sorry, never mind. That was kind of weird.”

“It wasn’t weird!” Daniel says hurriedly. “I just didn’t know what to say. But not because it was weird, it was just that I didn’t expect it, and - oh, fuck it." He steps a little closer to Kevin, hesitating before he continues. “Can I kiss you?”

“Can - Can you - Um, yes!” Kevin says. 

It’s only a quick peck, and an awkward one at that - Daniel nearly misses Kevin’s mouth altogether - but it leaves Kevin buzzing for the rest of the date. 

-

He offers to drive Daniel home instead of leaving him to take the bus, and Daniel accepts. Kevin has to pull a parking ticket off his windshield and stuff it in his pocket before Daniel can see it. The date ran longer than he expected, and the parking meter he’d filled had apparently expired an hour before. 

“Thank you for driving me,” Daniel says as they get on the road. “I didn’t want to say it before, but the bus really is a pain in the ass.”

“I can pick you up for future dates, then,” Kevin says. He doesn’t even have to look to know that Daniel is definitely blushing again. He nudges his phone across the dashboard once they’re stopped at a light. “Wanna pick a song?”

“Oh, sure,” Daniel says. He scrolls through Spotify for a couple of minutes and picks a Beatles song. Kevin smirks.

“This is dad music,” he says.

“Says the actual dad!” Daniel protests. He glances back at Kevin’s playlists and grins. “And the person with the Taylor Swift playlist.”

“Nothing wrong with some Taylor Swift. Jim loves her,” Kevin replies.

“Yeah, but you definitely can’t bully me for putting on a Beatles song.”

“Point taken.”

They alternate between choosing songs for a little while, the music coming to a stop as they pull up to Daniel’s apartment building. 

“Thanks for driving me home,” Daniel says as he gathers his bag off the floor of the car. “And thank you for coming with me. I could tell it wasn’t really your cup of tea, but I had a great time.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. It was a blast,” Kevin says. 

Daniel unbuckles his seatbelt, leans across the center console, and kisses Kevin on the cheek before hopping out of the car. He stands on the front step of the building and waves until Kevin’s car is out of sight.

-

Kevin starts to bring Daniel a drink every morning, whenever he can make it to the later drop-off. He doesn’t mean to fall into the habit, but he can’t get over the smile that Daniel flashes him every time he hands him a coffee cup. 

Daniel texts him a lot, too. His taste in memes is impeccable, and he always has a little video or gif ready to make Kevin laugh. He’s a heavy user of emoticons and hearts, and even though Kevin used to swear that they were cringeworthy, he finds himself punctuating his messages with :D or <3 just as much as Daniel does. 

As the weeks wear on, though, it’s hard to shake the feeling that they’re being watched. A few of the other parents sniff disdainfully at Kevin whenever they see him with the cups in his hands, and whisper to each other while they wait for him to be finished with talking to Daniel. The WhatsApp group chat falls suspiciously silent, and Kevin wonders if they’ve made a second one without him.

His questions are answered one Wednesday morning. He arrives at the school to find Daniel and the teacher’s assistant waiting at the main entrance with another woman by their side. She looks vaguely familiar to Kevin, but he can’t place where he recognizes her from. He walks up to Daniel, Jim clinging onto his hand, and nods at him.

“Good morning, Mr. O’Reilly,” the woman says to him. “Do you mind coming along to my office for a minute?”

Kevin glances at Daniel, but his expression betrays no emotion.

“You can leave Jim here,” the teacher’s assistant adds. “I’ll take him up for you.”

“Um, alright, then,” Kevin says reluctantly. When the woman turns around and heads into the building, Kevin mouths to Daniel, “ _ Who is that?” _

Daniel gives Kevin a funny look. “ _ The head teacher,”  _ he mouths back. Kevin cringes. He definitely should’ve remembered that.

The two of them are through a door behind the receptionist’s desk and into a small, cramped office. The head teacher motions for them to sit in the hard plastic chairs in front of her desk and takes a seat herself. Kevin can’t help but feel like a little kid in big trouble, even though he’s twenty-seven and this woman has no possible means of punishing him. 

“Apologies for the impromptu meeting,” she says. “I’ve received quite a few emails from the parents in your class with concerns about the nature of your, ah, relationship.”

Daniel freezes. 

“What are they saying?” Kevin says, shifting to the edge of his seat. 

“Well, it’s mostly worries about favoritism,” she says. She turns her monitor slightly and shows Kevin a brief snippet of one of the emails. “Although one parent was upset about having a homosexual teaching their son.”

Kevin is about to say that that parent should go fuck themselves, but he holds back when he remembers the conversation that he and Daniel had on their first date about how hard it was for him to get this job in the first place. He glances over and sees that Daniel has his head down, his eyes trained on his shoes. Kevin’s suddenly a little worried that this incident could lead to him getting fired. 

Thankfully, the head teacher sighs. “I don’t think your personal life affects your teaching quality, Mr. Condren, so I think we can ignore that particular complaint. But I’m a bit more concerned about the favoritism element. I think we ought to consider transferring Jim to the other kindergarten class.”

Daniel straightens up in his chair. Kevin frowns.

“Um, isn’t that a bit of a disruption? He has friends in his class and everything,” he points out. The head teacher nods.

“I understand. To be honest with you, we’ve never really dealt with something like this. Generally, if a teacher is a family friend of a student, we don’t put the child in their class in the first place, but I take it this developed after the school year started?”

“Yes,” Daniel says. He shoots Kevin an apologetic glance before turning back to the head teacher. “I agree. I think transferring Jim would be for the best, at least temporarily. If he reacts badly, then we can easily switch back.”

It’s not ideal, but Kevin knows that Daniel’s career could be on the rocks if he doesn’t agree. He decides to go along with it.

“Alright, that sounds reasonable.”

The head teacher smiles at Kevin. “Thank you. Kids are resilient, Mr. O’Reilly. Jim will be alright.”

When they step back out into the hallway, Kevin and Daniel let out audible sighs of relief at the same time.

“Jesus Christ,” Kevin mutters. “That was weird as hell.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry, Kevin. I didn’t think that, um, this would cause such a fuss,” Daniel says, running a hand through his messy curls. “I wish I could keep Jim in my class. He’s such a good kid.”

“Oh. I just realized I won’t be able to see you in the mornings anymore,” Kevin says. Daniel smirks.

“Don’t be so dramatic. Jim’s new classroom is next door to mine.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it hasn't been that long right?  
> 23rd of june  
oh fuck i shld probably finish this  
also in this universe coronavirus doesn't exist i dont care that shit is too depressing for this fluff fic  
as usual dont show this to daniel, kevin, or anyone associated with them

It’s a rainy Friday afternoon, Jim’s last day of school before winter break. The struggle of the first day feels like a distant memory to Kevin by now - he’s a morning routine pro now. He has Jim’s breakfast on the table before he even goes to wake him up, and he’s changed out the lace-up school shoes for the velcro ones. 

Despite the cloudy weather, Kevin’s in a good mood when he goes to wake Jim up. He pauses in the hallway to re-read the text on his home screen.

**daniel: ** Hey, Kevin. Looking forward to seeing you later <3 Have a good morning sweetheart

He smiles fondly and puts his phone back in his pocket before tapping on Jim’s door a few times.

“Hey, Jim, time to get up!” he says.

Jim doesn’t reply.

“Jim?” Kevin says, trying not to let panic set into his voice. He opens the door slowly and sees Jim curled up in the corner of his bed, his sheets tightly wrapped around his tiny body. He’s visibly shivering. “Oh, no. What’s the matter?”

Kevin sits down on the edge of the bed and places the back of his hand on Jim’s forehead. It’s exactly what he feared. His son is burning up.

“Looks like a fever, bud,” Kevin says softly. “Any tummy aches?”

Jim nods forlornly. Kevin sighs and brushes Jim’s bangs off of his forehead. 

“Alright. No school today. Try and get some more sleep, okay? I’m gonna bring you an ibuprofen.”

-

Kevin takes a long sip of his coffee. The medicine had brought Jim’s fever down enough for him to go back to sleep. He’s done the Google search to make sure nothing is terribly wrong. Thankfully, it seems like a normal flu. The only thing he has left to do before Jim wakes up is cancel his dinner plans. 

**kevin: ** hey dan, really sorry, can’t make it out tonight. jim’s got a fever and i wanna keep an eye on him

**daniel: ** Oh no! I’m really sorry to hear that :( I heard a pretty nasty one was going around... I hope he feels better soon!

**kevin: ** he seems in good spirits and all that so i’m sure he’ll be okay soon

Kevin hesitates before his next message. He doesn’t want Daniel to read it the wrong way. He quickly decides that he can’t let himself overthink it.

**kevin: ** i obviously can’t come out but he’s usually asleep around eight... you could come over if you wanted? movie night or something?

**dan: ** Oh, I’d love that, actually. Something chill to wrap up this hectic term :)

-

When Kevin opens his front door at eight on the dot, the first thing he sees is the bunch of white flowers that Daniel is holding with both hands. The exhaustion of dealing with a sick Jim all day must be getting to him, because he almost tears up on the spot.

“Oh, Dan,” he says. “You didn’t have to.”

“Well, I was going to anyway.” Daniel sheepishly extends the bouquet to Kevin. “I figured you doubly deserve it now. You’ve probably had a hard day.”

Instead of taking the flowers, Kevin throws his arms around Daniel and pulls him in for a tight hug. Daniel squeals.

“Careful!” he protests. “You’re gonna crush them!”

Kevin rolls his eyes and steps back. “Shh, you dork. I’m trying to say thank you.”

They head into the kitchen, and Kevin spends a few minutes opening cupboards to try and find the only vase he has in the house. Daniel perches on one of the counters and studies the pictures on the wall. He smirks when he catches sight of the whiteboard calendar Kevin’s set up on the fridge.

“Kevin, that calendar says it’s April 2017.”

“Yes, look, it was a failed project. I got busy,” Kevin says. He throws open the last cabinet, grabs the vase off the top shelf, and holds it up triumphantly. “Ha! I knew it was still there.”

“You got too busy to use some markers?”

“You can take these flowers home if you want, smartass,” Kevin retorts. 

“I’m just teasing.”

-

It’s eleven P.M., and Daniel is asleep. He’s curled up on the couch, his head resting on Kevin’s chest, one arm cradling a throw pillow. Kevin gave up on paying attention to the movie around the same time Daniel started softly snoring.

He tangles his fingers in Daniel’s hair, gently toying with the curls, careful not to wake him up. He can only imagine how tired Daniel must get after all those long hours of handling rowdy toddlers.

It’s only been a few months, and the time they get together isn’t as much as either of them would like. Planning around work and childcare is a major hassle for both of them. Still, when he glances down at Daniel sleeping beside him, Kevin can’t remember the last time everything felt so easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i had a wedding epilogue planned for this but idk if i can be fucked w it anymore im just glad this is done lmao  
come join the cmrt discord server if u want! everyone is super friendly n we love having new people :] https://discord.gg/UdhuStX


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